The present disclosure relates to an environmentally benign, yet powerful, cleaning composition. Commercially available cleaning compositions generally incorporate chemicals that are detrimental to the environment. These chemicals include surfactants, solvents, boosters and chelators. Other common ingredients in cleaning compositions that can harm the environment include phosphates, nitrilotriacetic acid, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, nonylphenol ethoxylates, and heavy metals; some of which have been demonstrated to accumulate in ground water.
Toxic chemicals from cleaning compositions have been found in fresh water such as ponds, lakes, and streams in high levels. Aquatic organisms, including both plants and animals, are at risk from exposure to high levels of these chemicals in water systems. Further, humans exposed to these chemicals through water systems may suffer from health problems. Additionally, many cleaning compositions contain toxic or carcinogenic chemicals, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) that can pollute the air. As a result, alternative cleaning compositions which do not contain these and other environmental and bio-hazardous chemicals are desired.
Typical cleaning compositions require multiple surfactants, solvents, and builder combinations to achieve adequate consumer performance. For cost-effectiveness and out of concern for the environment, focus has shifted to producing cleaning compositions containing naturally occurring chemicals. There has long been a need for a naturally-based cleaning composition that achieves acceptable consumer performance with a limited number of natural components compared to highly developed compositions using synthetic surfactants and solvents.
A number of representative compositions include high numbers of ingredients and synthetic compounds, leading to higher costs of production and limited usefulness. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,759,382, 6,686,323 6,117,820 and 6,537,960 disclose cleaning compositions with high complexity and large numbers of ingredients.
Prior compositions have not successfully minimized ingredients while maintaining quality of cleaning, particularly with environmentally benign compounds. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning composition that overcomes the disadvantages and shortcomings associated with existing cleaning compositions.